


.V* 













•k -A ^ ^ • 









-^^o^ 















v'JV 



■% 



•^-o'* 



>^x^X-^i^\ ' 



%\ -^o V^ 












7 , \P b 



\ ^-^'* y 

V^ 



> 



%iF^ 






"'-^ 















•• A??^ 



.0' 



> 






^:..^' 

.v^. 



^oV^ 






o V 



^V' 



.^^ 



o 



^0 



%?► 



■y ■ * ^ « „" ^ 



<J>^ * O N ' ^^ 






0' 






V 



qV ^ o - o , ^'c 



9^ '•/■«- A' 







3 V 



•^0^ 



1 ' I-x 






"^^ 
"^v-. 



,0 






^' "V 



0^ 



v^ * 



V- „ « o '^ 









"aV 



-^^s 




HVRO.N liKKKKI.KV .KUI.NSON 



Abraham Lincoln 

and 

Boston Corbett 



WITH PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 
OF EACH 



John Wilkes Booth 

and 

Jefferson Davis 

A TRUE STORY 
OF THEIR CAPTURE 



BYRON BERKELEY JOHNSON 

WALTHAM, mVbS. 

1914 



Copyright, 1914 

By Byron Bekkeley Johnson 

all rights reserved 

Published June, 1914 



Pf 



JUN ?4 1914 
i)CI,A376423 



PREFACE 

A recent imperfect brochure of mine relating to Boston 
Corbett, who shot John Wilkes Booth, the assassinator of 
President Lincoln, has brought requests for more of the his- 
tory of this unique character. Its study forces us to link it 
with the death of Lincoln, the end of Booth and the capture 
of JefiFerson Davis, the inspiring angel of Booth on his last 
mission. 

The recording of real personal recollections assists in 
making genuine history, and furnishes a flavor delightful to 
the public taste. I will present some personal items about 
Lincoln and Corbett, and testimony from official records 
— that we may see the characteristics of the two men, and 
then by an analysis of other facts get a correct view of the 
tragic end of Booth, and of his incentives to his mad career. 

We will examine the exciting and singular Kansas life of 
Corbett. Bringing the truth out of the many versions relating 
to the capture of Jefferson Davis, we shall find that the 
ridiculous stories, published by the northern press, of his 
fleeing in his wife's dress and crinoline, emanated in the fer- 
tile brain of the General commanding the "raid into Alabama 
and Georgia," and had no foundation in fact. We can 
afford to bear honest testimony even at this late date. 

B. B. Johnson 
Waltham, Mass., 1914 



Chapter I 

A FEW PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS ILLUSTRATIVE OF 

LINCOLN'S METHODS, HIS KEEN PERCEPTIONS 

AND INNER LIFE. 

October 7th, 1858, 1 was sent by a committee 
of young Republicans of Des Moines County, 
Iowa, to Galesburg, Illinois, to secure Mr. 
Lincoln for a public address at Burlington, 
Iowa. 

Hon. James Harlan, U. S. Senator from 
Iowa, was to be a guest at the Lincoln and 
Douglas debate. He later became the father- 
in-law of Robert T. Lincoln. 

Armed with a letter from Ex-Governor 
Grimes, I received an invitation to a seat on the 
platform. At the close of the debate Senator 
Harlan introduced me to the speakers. A few 
words by Senator Harlan, supplementing the 
Governor's letter, received a prompt, "I will 
come." 

He came, and I had the pleasure of calling 
an immense audience to order and of intro- 
ducing Governor Grimes to preside. The 
speech, along the line of the famous debates, 

13 



lasting nearly two hours, was delivered in an 
easy, calm manner, full of pungent truth, 
sparkling humor and grand appeals for an up- 
lift of conscience. 

In 1860, I had the privilege of being in the 
wigwam convention which nominated him for 
President — and of acting as an alternate at the 
second ballot. 

People cannot appreciate how the great men 
of the country outdid themselves in the en- 
thusiasm caused by two men carrying through 
the wigwam one of the rails split by Mr. Lin- 
coln to fence out the wolves from his father's 
cabin. 

Soon after his inauguration, I was appointed 
to an important position in the U. S. Mail Ser- 
vice, west of the Mississippi River. I raised a 
Company directly after the Fort Sumpter epi- 
sode, but on a physical examination was not 
allowed to go into service. When the Civil 
War was well under way, being transferred to 
the War Department at Washington, I was 
enabled to renew the acquaintance begun at 
Galesburg, and which continued until the 
assassination. 

Illustrations of the President's characteristics 
are numerous — many given are genuine and 
some are fakes. 

A few came under my personal observation, 
which at the risk of repetition I give. 

14 



In his office, one morning after a great battle, 
he was visibly depressed, and seemed unable 
to settle down to work. 

He took from his pocket a Testament, his 
constant companion, read a few verses, wiped 
away a tear — went to his tasks refreshed. 

Detailed by Assistant Secretary of War 
P. H. Watson, to go with the President to 
Armory Square Hospital, to give him an in- 
sight into the service rendered to the sick and 
wounded by the various State agents, which I 
could do as a volunteer visitor for the Massa- 
chusetts agent, we were passing through 
the wards where ahead of us was a woman 
with a basket of miscellaneous tracts, which 
she distributed without regard to subject or 
intended readers. 

As we approached a group of soldiers whom 
she had served with tracts, they were laughing 
quite vigorously, and one was calling attention 
to his tract. The President assumed that he 
was making fun of the woman and said "My 
boy, I wouldn't laugh at her, she thinks she is 
doing good work and so do I." Then he told 
of a tract he received when a lad, how it had 
influenced him for permanent good. The 
soldier, holding up his tract, replied, "You 
wouldn't laugh? Look at the thing." Across the 
face in great black letters he read, "The Sin 
of Dancing," and added, "and both of my 

15 



legs off at the knees." The President laughed 
heartily, and turning said to me, "That's the 
best evidence I ever saw of misapplied philan- 
thropy." Contributors to the needs of the 
soldiers had but little idea of the extent of the 
misapplication of their charities. 

It is said that "a little child shall lead 
them." "Tad" did lead the President for the 
picture, and could have his father's attention 
whenever it was possible. The President 
loved the soldiers, and seemed to feel that he 
had a personal responsibility for their welfare. 
In September, 1864, a telegram from Burling- 
ton, Iowa, asked me to obtain the President's 
autograph to be sold there at a soldiers' fair, 
to be opened that week. I secured an album 
and went to his office, where he seemed too 
absorbed to permit interruption. Nicolayand 
Hay were there. I told Nicolay my errand and 
proposed to leave the book and return later. 
The President had caught the words "soldiers' 
fair," asked what was wanted, took the album, 
wrote on its first page "A. Lincoln," and 
handed it to his secretaries for their signatures 
on the same page. Cabinet members Seward, 
Stanton, Welles, Bates and Blair added their 
names. Secretaries Chase and Smith were 
absent. Many prominent autographs were 
added and the book sent by express the next 
day to a friend at Burlington with my bid. 

16 



Mine was the highest and I have the album 
now. Later the President asked me who got 
it; to my reply, said "you deserved it." 

As President of the Sunday School Union, 
I stood by his side, when from a White House 
balcony he reviewed our annual parade, which 
passed through the grounds. As it entered at 
the east gate— some boys were leading— he said 
"I never see boys like those but what I wonder 
what is in their heads; you never can tell. 
They remind me of a boy named Daniel who 
attended a district school in New England, 
and was in the habit after recess, of coming 
into the school with dirty hands. The master 
had remonstrated and punished him without 
much improvement. One day he saw Daniel's 
hands were quite dirty and he called him to 
his desk." (Mr. Lincoln, as he told the story, 
acted it.) "The boy holding his dirty left 
hand close to his side, as he moved on, spat on 
his right hand and wiped it on his pants. At 
the desk, the master, ferrule in hand, lectured 
him and to shame him said ' if you will find 
me another as dirty a hand as this one in the 
room I will let you off this time.' Immediately 
he was confronted with that left hand ex- 
tended. You can't tell what's in a boy's 
head." That boy was Daniel Webster. Was 
there ever a better illustration of "you can't tell 
what is in a boy's head" than Abraham Lincoln? 

17 



His modesty was shown in 1858 when 
requested to furnish his 1849 autobiography 
for the new work a "Congressional Direc- 
tory, " he wrote, "I was born in Harding 
County, Kentucky, February, 12th, 1809. 
Education, defective; profession, lawyer. Post 
master at a small place. Captain in the Black 
Hawk War. Four times member of the Illi- 
nois legislature. Was a member of the Lower 
House of Congress." 

I heard him say that in the Black Hawk 
War he was "sent down South, did not see an 
Indian, but had several bloody battles with 
mosquitos." The blacks of the South had 
learned that their former masters feared Lin- 
coln, whom they had never seen. Col. Mc- 
Kayne, Superintendent of the Contraband 
Camp at Beaufort, told this story to the Presi- 
dent and others of us at the White House. 
"Last Sunday the colored preacher and I 
came into the camp and found the negroes 
greatly excited by a discussion of 'what am 
Massum Linkum like?' The old preacher said, 
'Yous knows nothing 'bout Massum Linkum. 
I tell you what Massum Linkum am like. 
He is jes like Jesu Christ, he go up and down 
de earth.' That seemed to satisfy them." 
Brushing tears away the President said, "Col. 
it is a great responsibility to be the agent for 
freeing a race." Do you wonder that those 

18 



who knew Lincoln personally loved him, and 
that time has drawn universal affection? 

It is interesting to note some of the ideas 
formed by "Young America" of his career. 
It illustrates the imperfectness of the study, 
and possibly of the teaching of the Civil War 
history. Some illustrations will show the im- 
portance of a correct early education. At a 
school celebration, in a Boston district, of the 
one hundredth anniversary of the birth of 
Abraham Lincoln, compositions were written 
by scholars and read at the celebration service. 
One read "Aberham Lincon was horned in a 
bright summer day the 12th Feb. 1899. He 
was horned in a log cabin he had helped his 
father to build." 
We cannot "tell what is in a boy's head." 
Another and older scholar in the district 
had a wide sweeping vision of historical events 
and of Lincoln's nobleness of character, and 
recorded the same in a prize essay as follows : 
"Abraham Lincoln was not the Father of His 
Country, like G. Washington was, because the 
country was already born when A. Lincoln 
arrived in it, through a log cabin in Kentucky 
or Virginia, I forget which. His folks was so 
poor that he did not have no overcoat nor 
under things until he was twenty-five years 
old, but he was clothed in Noble Manhood. 
He wrote the Emancipation Procklermation 

19 



which gave their Freedom to 50,000,000 slaves 
w^hich made them our equal except in color, 
which neither they nor A. Lincoln could help. 
He was a tall, bony, powerful man, both physi- 
cally and mentally and could swing a axe with 
power hence he was given the nom de ploom 
of the rail-splitter. He was the friend of all 
from the lowest down poor man of all colors 
to the highest up rich man with his palace and 
automobile. If a man was honest A. Lincoln 
asked no questions, hence he was called 
Honest Abe. He knew that a true heart could 
beat beneath a black as well as a white skin, if 
both was clean. He beat in the great Civil 
War, which made him the People's Idle and at 
last landed him in the White House as our 
Noble President, A. Lincoln." 

Lincoln "believed in God as the Supreme 
Ruler of the world — the guider of men — the 
controller of the great events of national life, 
and the destinies of mankind." 

He was quite sure that he was a chosen in- 
strument to lead the forces of freedom. 

He had endured the privations of the poor 
whites of the border states. A conception of 
the fate of the slaves was burned into his brain 
and on his heart when he saw the slave girl 
sold at auction in New Orleans. At the time he 
made the prophetic statement, "Some day I 
will hit that institution hard." 

20 



He believed that the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence should be the standard of all politi- 
cal action. 

When the Republican party of Illinois was 
founded he said, "Take the Declaration of 
Independence and Hostility to the Extension 
of Slavery for your platform, build on it, and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against us." 

About two years later he was debating with 
Douglas, in the seven memorable discussions — 
the latter's inconsistency in trying to satisfy 
both the non-extension views of the North and 
the extension rights claimed by the South. 
The writer cannot forget Lincoln's arraign- 
ment of Douglas' double role, the keen irony 
and unanswerable logic, at the Galesburg de- 
bate, October 7, 1858, to which he listened. 
Lincoln compelled Douglas to admit that the 
only correct standard was, that "right makes 
might." 

At the Cooper Institute in 1860, Mr. Lincoln 
appealed to the world with these words, 
"Let us have faith that right makes might, and 
in that faith, let us to the end, dare to do our 
duty as we understand it." On the same plat- 
form later, when Lincoln's record had been 
written on the hearts and minds of all men, 
Carl Schurz said — "No American President 
ever wielded such power as that which was 
thrust into Lincoln's hands. But no man was 

21 



ever entrusted with it to whom its seductions 
were less dangerous than they proved to be to 
Abraham Lincoln." 

Schuyler Colfax in his memorable memorial 
address at Chicago, brought to view Mr. Lin- 
coln's nature and his reasons for its frequent 
application during the Civil War. "He bore 
the nation's perils, trials and sorrows ever on 
his mind. You knew him in a large degree 
by the illustrative stories of which his memory 
and tongue were so prolific, using them to 
point a moral, or to soften discontent at his 
decision. But this was the mere outflow which 
relieved him for the moment from the heavy 
weight of public duties and responsibilities 
under which he wearied." 

Abraham Lincoln was peculiarly a "child of 
the people," self-educated, honest, modest, 
pure and tender hearted. At first, homely to 
the eye, he appealed by a face lightened by 
the fire of his spirit, his humor and human 
sympathy, directly to one's heart. 

Liberator — as the agent of God, of a race — 
patiently he waited and bore the reproach of 
the impatient, until he saw God's time at hand. 
(For his description of his vision read his second 
inaugural address.) Then, "with malice to- 
ward none, with charity for all," he uttered 
the world-reaching word, "Free." 

22 



Such was the man shot by the profligate 
Booth. 

Well may we all look into his character and 
motives, and accept General Grant's statement 
of Lincoln's life and service, "They will ever 
grow brighter as time passes and his great 
work is better understood." 

We can see our duty and pleasure today, 
expressed in a Californian's 1909 verse : 

Land of our loyal love and hope, 
O land he died to save, 
Bow down, renew today thy vows 
Beside his martyr grave." 



23 




.MlllN WILKKS I'.lKllll — \VI|i> Sllol Tli i:Sl 11 1: N r I.IMill.N. AIKII. 14, ISIlS 



Chapter II. 

THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN AND 
CAPTURE OF BOOTH. 

The story of the assassination in most of its 
details is familiar to all, and is undisputed up 
to the time Booth was discovered in the Gar- 
rett barn. What happened there has been im- 
perfectly told by writers having no personal 
knowledge, and who have not known or ac- 
cepted record evidence at its worth. 

Some features have quite recently been at- 
tributed to Lieut. Doherty which were due to 
Col. Conger. Boston Corbett's part has never 
been fairly and fully told in print, so far as I 
have been able to learn. 

At the time I residedon"H"street — between 
Ninth and Tenth streets, Washington. Ford's 
Theatre fronted on Tenth street. From my 
front door, looking directly south, we could 
see most of the theatre building. To the east, 
on the opposite side of "H" street we could 
see the Surratt house, where the plot was 
planned. The Peterson house into which the 
President was carried — directly opposite the 

27 



theatre, was one where I had visited. The 
room where he died, at the rear of the front 
lower hall, was occupied by William T. Clark, 
Co. D. 13th Mass. Vols. Mr. Clark was a 
fine penman and after the battle at Antietam 
was detailed for duty in the office of the Ad- 
jutant General. In this room, I had a glance 
of the dying President about half an hour 
before he expired. 

An unreported incident enlivened our situa- 
tion, which illustrated the disloyalty of some of 
the beneficiaries of the government patronage, 
and the shrewdness of a little "Topsy" girl, 
born a slave. 

Soon after Booth shot the President, several 
squares including Ford's Theatre, the Peter- 
son house, Surratt's and our block were sur- 
rounded by military, who controlled egress 
and ingress on the 15th. At noon, upon 
reaching home from the War Department, my 
wife informed me that "Topsy" had whis- 
pered over the rear division fence, "rebel flag 
in de parlor under de carpet in front" and 
then ran in. The family were dependent 
upon two sons, clerks in the Treasury Depart- 
ment, drawing salaries of twelve and fourteen 
hundred dollars. 

They were anxiously awaiting the arrival of 
Jefiferson Davis and expecting to run out the 
flag to welcome him. An arrangement was 

28 



soon made with the patrol officer, a Massa- 
chusetts Captain, and two soldiers passed up 
through my house to the front balustrade, 
where they pushed in the window door, and 
found and carried away the flag. Who told 
of it was a mystery to them, as well as was 
the ultimate disposal of the flag to us. 

A TRUE STORY 
OF BOOTH'S CAPTURE 

In forming our opinion of the particulars of 
Booth's capture and tragic death we need to 
remember some never disputed facts; namely,— 

Booth broke his leg when he leaped to the 
theatre platform. 

In the alley where his horse was mounted, 
a colored woman recognized and spoke to him 
and the man assisting him to mount. 

She gave the first notice of his manner of 
escape. 

Booth was treated for his injury at Dr. 
Mudd's. 

The boot removed from the broken leg was 
there found bearing the initials "J. W. B." 

The mate boot was on Booth when found. 

Booth's route of escape was told by a negro 
at Port Royal. 

At Bowling Green a rebel Captain told 
under coercion that Booth was at the Garrett 

29 



farm. Col. Conger, in charge of the pursuit, 
knew Booth. 

Booth gave his final message for his mother 
to Col. Conger. 

Booth asserted that Harold had committed 
no crime. 

Harold said he met Booth, a stranger, out- 
side of Washington. 

The conspirators' trial proved Harold to 
have been a party assisting Booth in the pre- 
liminaries at Washington. 

Dr. May who had operated upon Booth, be- 
fore he saw the body, described certain scars 
caused by his operation — which were found. 



30 




i:i>WlN M. SIANTON. SKCKl'.IA in Ol' WAl! 180,'). 



THE CAPTURE 

At the date of the assassination, Gen. L. C. 
Baker, Chief of the National Detective Police, 
was in New York. 

Secretary Stanton recalled him and gave 
him entire charge of the pursuit of Booth. 

At Baker's request, Gen. Sweitzer, com- 
manding the Lincoln Barracks at Washington, 
was directed to "detail a reliable and discreet 
officer, with twenty-five men, well mounted, 
with three days rations to report to Gen. 
Baker." 

Lieut. Edward P. Doherty, Co. L. 16th 
N. Y. Cavalry was selected, he to choose the 
men from his Company. When he announced 
the service and that he would take the first 
twenty-five volunteering. Sergeant Corbett 
was the first to respond. 

Lieut. Col. Everett J. Conger, who had 
been in active service was selected to have 
absolute control of the raid. 

Lieut. Baker, cousin of the General, was as- 
signed to act with Conger. 

General Baker ordered them to "capture 
but not to shoot Booth." 

When, acting upon the information furnish- 
ed by the negro and squeezed from the rebel 
Captain, they reached the Garrett farm, Lieut. 
Doherty ordered Corbett to "deploy the men 

33 



around the house and allow no one to escape." 
This order obeyed, the three officers entered 
the house, where they found Garrett and his 
son. Garrett refused all information, and 
when the son feared the acts of the officers, 
he yielded and said Booth was in the barn. 
Lieut. Doherty ordered Corbett to leave four 
men at the house and deploy the remainder 
"around the barn and allow no one to escape." 
The barn was a tobacco dry house, with open 
spaces between the boards. 

Col. Conger then called to Booth to give up 
his arms and he refused. 

He then directed Lieut. Baker to take young 
Garrett, Booth's friend, and go in for the 
weapons. They entered and Booth accused 
Garrett of betrayal, and drove them out. 
After a parley, Harold offered to surrender. 
Booth told him he was a coward and to go, 
calling out that Harold had committed no 
crime. 

Lieut. Doherty ordered Harold to put out 
his hands, which he tied together, then tied 
him to a tree. 

Corbett then proposed to Col. Conger to go 
in and bring Booth out, and Conger refused. 

Conger again demanded Booth to surrender. 
He answered — "No, I prefer to come out and 
fight." 

Conner then told him he would burn him 



out, and directed Garrett to pile pine boughs 
about the barn, which he did until Booth 
called out — "If you put any more brush 
against the barn I will put a ball through you," 
and Garrett quit. 

Corbett finding that Conger meant to fire 
the barn, asked Lieut. Doherty to let him go 
in for Booth, but he declined. Conger again 
told Booth to "Surrender or I will set the fire." 
Conger immediately set the fire and Booth 
called out — "Captain, make quick work of 
it and shoot me through the heart." Lieut. 
Baker replied, "We don't want to shoot you." 

Booth answered, "Well, my brave boys, you 
can prepare a stretcher for me." 

Corbett being unwilling that Booth should 
be burned to death, again asked Doherty for 
permission to bring Booth out, and was re- 
fused. 

The heat caused Booth to change his posi- 
tion, which he did, carbine in hand, to a spot 
where he had an unobstructed view of both 
Doherty and Corbett. Two of Corbett's com- 
rades told him Booth would shoot him. He 
kept his eye steadily on Booth, who raised his 
pistol to shoot, when Corbett, feeling sure that 
his commander or himself would be shot, fired 
and Booth fell. 

Conger, Baker and Doherty rushed in and 
brought Booth out. To Col. Conger he said, 

35 



"Tell my mother I die for my country" and 
soon expired. 

Lieut. Doherty sewed the body up in a blan- 
ket, sent out and impressed a negro having an 
old shack of a horse and wagon, put the body 
into the wagon and went to Belle Plain, where 
he was relieved of responsibility. 

All of the above statements were given to 
me by Corbett, and are fully corroborated by the 
official record of the testimony of Col. Conger, 
Lieuts. Baker and Doherty and Sergeant Cor- 
bett, before the Military Commission on May 
17, 1865. 

Corbett was charged by Conger with breach 
of military discipline "in firing without Do- 
herty's order, and in defiance of Gen. Baker's 
order," and was returned to the Washington 
camp to await court-martial. 

Baker's United States Secret Service — 
p. 537 contains the report of Col. Conger and 
Lieut. Baker to Secretary Stanton. It says: 
."Boston Corbett * "^ without order, pretext or 
excuse shot Booth," and "Lieut. Baker said 
to Col. Conger the man who fired it should go 
back to Washington under arrest." 

It is to be noted that Corbett was the only 
one not afraid. He realized that Booth would 
be "roasted alive," and his course was the 
more merciful in fact. He felt that he had 
done the right act, and was greatly irritated by 

36 



being confined to the camp, with none to in- 
tercede for him. I first met him at the 
Christian Commission rooms, and later he had 
been to our house to dinner. He sent for me, 
and after a talk with his superiors, I reported 
the interview to Secretary Stanton, a man of 
few words and prompt action. He ordered 
the Lieutenant and Sergeant to be produced 
before him as soon as possible. 

Soon there were assembled in his office, the 
Secretary, Assistant-Secretary Dana, the Ad- 
jutant-General, Lieut. Doherty, Sergeant Cor- 
bett, a Washington reporter, and myself. 

The questions and answers were direct and 
short. Lieut. Doherty stated the facts — said that 
Corbett shot Booth without orders, that he 
was a brave and true soldier, sometimes 
impulsive. 

Corbett's version differed only in the addi- 
tional information of his oflfers to go in for 
Booth. He insisted that he had done right, 
as Booth would have shot Doherty or himself. 

Lieut. Doherty admitted that the Sergeant 
made the offers as stated by him. 

After a conference with Assistant-Secretary 
Dana, Mr. Stanton complimented Lieut. Do- 
herty — approved of his holding Corbett for the 
action of his superiors and said, "The rebel is 
dead — the patriot lives — he has saved us con- 

37 



tinued excitement, delay and expense — the 
patriot is released." 

Edwin M. Stanton was a great lawyer. 
Quick to discern dissembling, he believed 
Corbett shot Booth, and that he was brave and 
true. 

Corbett went home to dine with me. A great 
crowd gathered and clamored for him. Out 
of respect for Secretary Stanton, he promised 
he would not make a speech. I then took him 
up to the porch, and when the people had 
shouted until tired, he said, "Fellows, I 
am glad to see you. Johnson won't let me 
make a speech. Good bye." 

After dinner we went to Brady's for his pho- 
to to be taken, the one which follows this 
chapter. On the back it is endorsed "To 
Mr. B. B. Johnson with kindest regards. 
Boston Corbett." 



38 



CHAPTER III 

LIFE OF CORBETT 

What is the truth about Corbett's strange 
career? Let us view his youth— emigration to 
America — his trade— bitter experiences in New 
York — life in Boston — mihtary service with 
four enhstments — starvation at Andersonville 
"Bull Pen" — lay preaching— career in Kansas 
— adjournment, revolver in hand, of the Kansas 
Legislature — commitment to the Insane Asy- 
lum and escape into Mexico. 

Much has been written about him by doubt- 
ers of historical truth, who never knew the 
man. In September, 1913, the Boston He- 
rald contained sketches of him, by an anony- 
mous writer, which I attempted to answer, 
but evidently the editor thought I did not. 
After publishing a skeleton of my article he 
added the following foot note — 

"Ed. Mr. Johnson probably knows that Mr. 
David Miller DeWitt, a scholarly historian 
maintains that Boston Corbett did not shoot 
Booth at all, but merely pretended to do so, 
and that Booth killed himself." 

41 



I was not aware that any one believed such 
a claim. 

If there is any fact, connected with Presi- 
dent Lincoln's assassination and with the cap- 
ture and death, more absolutely established 
than that Corbett never "pretended" and that 
he did shoot Booth, the records fail to show it. 
It might as truthfully be said that Booth did 
not shoot Lincoln. The publication of such a 
statement as the Herald contained, and others 
in the Transcript and Globe, are apt to mis- 
lead. I propose to review from personal 
knowledge, official records and witnesses of 
1865 the facts, which are: 

The arrest of Corbett on the spot by his 
commanding officer as shown in Chapter II. 

The action of Secretary Stanton. 

The payment of the reward, under direction 
of a Committee of Congress. 

The testimony of Col. Conger, Lieut. Do- 
herty and Corbett, before the celebrated 
Commission composed of the following — 

Major Generals, David Hunter, Lewis 
Wallace, A. V. Kautz — Brig. Generals, 
A. P. Howe, R. S. Foster, T. M. Harris, 
J. A. Eken and Col. C. H. Tompkins. 

Brig. General J. Holt was Judge Advocate 
General, assisted by Hon. John A. Bingham 
and Col. H. L. Burnett, two eminent attorneys. 

The Commission had before it all the evi- 

42 



dence the United States could obtain. The 
Commission was fully satisfied that Booth 
died as the result of Corbett's shot. 

Col. Conger had no love for Corbett, who 
suggested that the act of firing the barn was 
too cruel, but he had to admit that Corbett 
fired the fatal shot. — Baker's United States 
Secret Service, page 537. 

The day of the death of Booth, before the 
details were fully known, Secretary Stanton 
telegraphed to Gen. John A. Dix — "Booth was 
shot while attempting to escape." 

John G. Nicolay and John Hay had access 
to all lines of evidence when they issued their 
comprehensive "Life of Lincoln." In Vol. X, 
Page 312, they record, "Booth was shot by 
Boston Corbett, a sergeant of Cavalry." Hon. 
Henry J. Raymond, a member of Congress, 
an intimate friend of the President, also wrote 
a "Life of Lincoln." On page 713 he says, 
"Booth was shot by Sergeant Corbett." 

Lieut. Doherty, always, before and after his 
discharge from the army, stated that Booth was 
shot by Corbett. 

All the surgeons who examined Booth's 
body declared the shot could not have been 
self-infiicted. 

Gen. Baker was bitter against Corbett to the 
last. In 1867 he published his "History of the 
Secret Service." On page 502 he describes the 

43 



setting of the fire to the barn in which Booth 
was, and adds "And so as he (Booth) dashed 
intent to expire not unaccompanied, a dis- 
obedient sergeant, at an eyehole, drew upon 
him the fatal bead .... and John Wilkes 
Booth fell headlong to the floor, lying there 
in a heap, a little life remaining." 

The proof is too strong to be successfully at- 
tacked by any "scholarly historian." 

BOSTON CORBETT'S LIFE 

Whenever the story of the assassination of 
the patriot Commander-in-Chief is told, natu- 
rally, alongside stands out the name of the 
patriot Sergeant, who in four enlistments of- 
fered his life for his adopted country and in 
a special manner to risk it before the assassin's 
bullets. 

Born in London, England, in 1832, named 
Thomas P., which name he retained until he 
was baptized in Boston. Then he declared that 
Christ, when he called his disciples, gave 
them new names, and that his name should 
henceforth be Boston Corbett. 

In 1839, he came with his parents to New 
York, and presumably to Troy, N. Y. He 
struggled in poverty for an education, became 
a fair scholar and a fluent speaker. 

At Troy, he learned the hatters trade and 

44 



became very proficient, working there several 
years, thence went to New York City. He 
married and lost his wife and infant child at 
birth. He was unable to meet the expenses 
he had incurred. He became despondent and 
a victim of the cup which destroys body and 
soul unless speedy rescue comes. While un- 
der the influence of liquor he strayed into a 
Salvation Army meeting, where he was detain- 
ed until sober. They exacted a promise that 
he would come the next evening. 

He was a man of sterling truth— keeping his 
promises, even when it caused him deprivation. 
He followed the Army meetings until his moral 
fibre developed into enthusiastic advocacy of 
"Come to Christ," his favorite plea. At the 
Fulton Street meetings he became known as 
the "Glory to God" man, and his amens at 
times were too vociferous. His conduct sub- 
sequently at the Bromfield Street Church, 
Boston, bears the same reputation. 

From his photo one would hardly suspect 
that he was the subject of intense emotion 
whenever his interest was aroused. In height, 
he was about five feet five, stocky build, brown 
eyes, fair face, mild countenance, parted his 
hair in the middle, and had a clear ringing 
voice. In 1857, he commenced to work 
at the shop of Samuel Mason, Jr., a manufac- 
turing hatter at the corner of Dock Square 

45 



and Washington Street, Boston. Frequently 
he visited his employer's home. The stories 
of him told by Mr. Mason and his nervous ag- 
gressiveness did not please Mr. Mason's only 
daughter, who recalls many incidents of his 
eccentricities and religious ebullitions. 

She pronounces the photograph, here re-pro- 
duced, an excellent picture, very natural, ex- 
cepting his hair, which he wore very long 
"because all the pictures of Christ represented 
him wearing long locks." This he could not 
do in the army. In the Mason shop the men 
worked piece-work, each depending upon the 
promptness of the next man in passing along 
his part. Some of the men were at times pro- 
fane. At such events Corbett would stop, 
kneeling, offer prayer for the sinners, and 
sometimes adding a song — all the men would 
be obliged to hold up work. 

Being an expert workman and using great 
self-denial he was able to discharge all his New 
York debts. This being accomplished he 
spent his money for books and tracts, which 
he distributed at North Square and other 
North and West End meetings. 

At one of his North Square meetings he was 
accosted by two young women who sought 
unsuccessfully to inveigle him from the path 
of virtue. Desiring to have no inclinations in 
that direction (as he said "to be holy"), he pro- 

46 



ceeded to self-castration, for which he was 
treated in the Massachusetts General Hospital, 
from July 16 to August 18, 1858. 

MILITARY SERVICE 

He appears to have been an early patriot. 
The first notice of the impending need of sol- 
diers was a telegram received by the Gover- 
nor from Senator Wilson, April 15, 1861. 

Governor Andrew said, "The occasion de- 
mands action, and it shall not be delayed by 
speech." 

This seems to have been Corbett's idea. He 
left immediately for New York, enlisted there 
as a Private in Co. I, 12th New York Militia, 
April 19, 1861, for three months. He enlisted 
again in the same regiment Co. K, June 2, 
1862, and was mustered out October 8, 1862. 

The 12th New York Militia surrendered at 
Harpers Ferry, W. Va., in September 1862. 
It was mustered out at New York October 12, 
1862, and declared exchanged January 11, 1863. 
Corbett again enlisted June 19, 1863, as Cor- 
poral in the same organization and was mus- 
tered out July 20th, 1863. August 4th, 1863, 
he enlisted as Sergeant in Co. L, 16th New 
York Cavalry and was mustered out at Wash- 
ington with the regiment August 17th, 1865. 

Before the 12th was mustered out, its Colonel 
being angered by the careless obedience of a 

47 



few of the men, cursed them in pubhc. Cor- 
bett stepped from the ranks and calmly protest- 
ed such abuse, with the result that he landed in 
the guard house, from which he emerged 
smiling, saying he had had a "good time with 
his God and his Bible." 

It is told that "he was very insistent of his 
rights — in the New York 12th he was being sent 
out to do some duty which would extend be- 
yond the hour of the expiration of his enlist- 
ment — that he called the attention of his Cap- 
tain and notified him he should quit the duty 
when his enlistment expired ; that he did so 
— was court-martialed, ordered to be shot but 
was reprieved and drummed out of camp." 
This was during his first enlistment. The fact 
that immediately after his first term he was re- 
enlisted in the same regiment and later re-en- 
listed again with a promotion and received 
three honorable discharges shows that the 
court martial story is a fiction. 

Leupp says he wore his hair while in the 
army "hanging long against the collars of his 
uniform." This was not allowed and his pho- 
tograph shows it was not so. V 

Leupp says that "notoriety and threatening 
letters unnerved him." A man that had the 
nerve he showed in battle, who three times 
sought to face Booth's carbine, would not be 
unnerved by publicity or scribblers. 

48 



He also says, "he left the army because he 
felt that the Booth award was not justly 
awarded." This is another fiction. The first 
announcement of the award gave Corbett and 
twenty-five others $26,000— it gave Gen. Baker 
and Col. Conger each $17,500, Lieut. Baker 
$5000, Lieut. Doherty, $2500. To five others 
who furnished information, a total of $6500. 
Gen. Baker claimed that none of the 
five others were entitled to any portion. 
Several of us volunteered to seek a rejection of 
that award— we succeeded. Baker and Conger 
suffered a cut down — Corbett's final award was 
over $2500 and he was satisfied. 

He left the army because the war was over, and his 
regiment was discharged. 

"CORBETT'S CAPTURE AND THE BULL PEN" 

His account of his capture by Mosby's 
troops at Culpepper, Va. will be of more per- 
sonal interest by his own account, and I give 
a copy of a letter written by Corbett May 13, 
1865. 

"I enlisted first in the 12th New York State 
Militia for three months, and afterwards served 
two more short terms in the same regiment, 
and when that was over, I enlisted for three 
years in the Cavalry service of which I have 
now served two years. I cannot now^ tell you 

49 



in detail all that I have passed through. But 
I have fought the rebels more than once. The 
last and hardest fight I had previous to shoot- 
ing Booth, was on the 24th of June last, when 
I faced and fought against a whole column of 
them, all alone, none but God being with me, 
to help me, my being in a large field and they 
being in the road with a high board fence be- 
tween us, enabled me to hold out against them 
as long as I did. 

But after driving back some that came out 
from their column to take me, they finally 
had the fence torn down, and then closed 
around me, and when my pistol gave out — 
giving me no more fire — I was captured by 
them and sent to Andersonville, Ga. 

There God was good to me, sparing my life 
while only another and myself lived to return 
out of fourteen men of my own Company. 
But bless the Lord, a score of souls were con- 
verted, right on the spot where I lay for three 
months without any shelter. Many others 
were, for meetings were held in different parts 
of the Bull Pen. 

I was exchanged at Savannah on the 19th of 
November, making my imprisonment five 
months. 

After being in the hospital at Annapolis 
a while, I had a furlough for thirty days and 
then returned to duty with my regiment. I 

50 



have not received any part of the reward, as 
the trial is occupying all the attention of the 
authorities who have the matter in hand. 
Yours in Christ, 

Boston Corbett." 

The capture was at Culpepper, and it is said 
that Mosby, struck by his bravery, would not 
allow his men to shoot Corbett. 

After his muster out, Corbett returned to 
Mr. Mason's employ, and renewed his activi- 
ties at the Bromfield Street Church. 

About this time a new style of hats came in- 
to favor, which were manufactured at Danbury, 
Conn. This made the work in Boston run light 
and Corbett went to Danbury, obtained em- 
ployment and "preached in the country round 
about." 

The next we know of him was at Camden, 
N. J., where he was well known as an active 
"Methodist lay preacher." 

In 1878, he removed to Kansas and took up 
a homestead at Concordia, Cloud County, 
built a "dugout" and lived in it several years, 
spending his time "as a preacher, in great de- 
mand at revival meetings." In September 
last, a writer to the Boston Herald claimed that 
he "became a patent medicine pedler and was 
residing at Enid, Oklahoma." Reliable in- 

51 



formation from the Secretary of State at 
Topeka, Kansas, is as follows: — 

"ToPEKA, Kansas, September 29, 1913. 

I am in receipt of your letter of September 
26, asking for information concerning Boston 
Corbett, the slayer of John Wilkes Booth. In 
reply I beg to advise, that a sketch of the life 
of Boston Corbett in the Historical Society of 
this State, prepared by Judge Huron, present 
police judge of this city, shows that Mr. Cor- 
bett was born in England in 1832. 

He was chosen assistant doorkeeper of the 
House of Representatives of the Kansas Legis- 
lature for the session of 1887. On February 
15, of that year, laboring under the impression 
that he was being discriminated against by 
other officers of the House, Mr. Corbett drew 
a revolver and running the officers from the 
building created such a commotion that it 
became necessary to adjourn the Legislature. 
He was finally seized by the police officers, 
overpowered and was taken before the probate 
judge, where he was adjudged insane on the 
following day. He escaped from the Topeka 
Asylum for the Insane, May 26, 1888. About 
a week later he showed up in Neodesha, Kan- 
sas, which is in the southeastern part of the 
state. He was riding the same horse on which 
he made his escape from the asylum. This 

52 



horse had been ridden up to the asylum 
grounds by a boy and left tied to a post, while 
the boy was visiting about the grounds. In 
company with a number of other inmates Mr. 
Corbett passed near the horse, and seeing him, 
sprang from the ranks, mounted the horse and 
rode away. In Neodesha he met a man who 
served with him as a prisoner in Andersonville 
prison. He told his old comrade that he had 
been so shamefully treated that he was going 
to leave the country and go to Mexico. 

Judge Huron who was appointed a guardian 
for him by the probate court, advises me that 
this is the last information he has ever had of 
Mr. Corbett. A few years after bidding fare- 
well to the old comrade in Neodesha, a man 
claiming to be Boston Corbett made applica- 
tion for a pension under that name. This 
man was a patent medicine pedler. 

Judge Huron investigated the matter and 
learned that while Corbett was five feet and 
four inches tall this medicine vender was six 
feet tall. At that time Corbett was a man past 
seventy years of age, and the man applying for 
a pension was under fifty years of age. Judge 
Huron succeeded in sending the man to the 
penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga. for three years. I 
think it safe to say that no one in Kansas 
knows the whereabouts of Boston Corbett. 

53 



Judge Huron has done everything in his 
power to locate his ward, but as stated above, 
has learned nothing from him since he bade 
farewell to his old comrade in Neodesha. 

Very truly yours, 

Charles H. Sessions, 

Secretary of State." 



A later letter from the Secretary of the 
Historical Society adds the fact that the "old 
comrade" was Richard Thatcher, who in 1888 
was Superintendent of Schools at Neodesha. 

It is evident that in 1887 Corbett was living 
an upright and strenuous life in Kansas. 

He became insane twenty-three years after 
his military service. 

In September, 1905, I saw in the New York 
Sun a notice that a man claiming to be Boston 
Corbett had been arrested at Dallas, Texas. I 
immediately communicated with the United 
States Attorney, and received from him the fol- 
lowing under date of November 16, 1905: 

"The man whom I prosecuted was not the 
genuine Boston Corbett, who shot Booth. It 
was an extremely interesting case. The de- 
fendant was uneducated, but very bright, and 
he from some source, had secured much data, 
which enabled him to impersonate Boston 

54 



Corbett to a remarkable degree. He is now 

in the United States Penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga. 

Yours, etc. 

Wm. H. ATWILL, 

U. S. Attorney." 

November 20, 1913, the Department of 
Justice at Washington informed me by letter, 
that "the imposter used the names of James 
and John Corbett, was committed to prison 
October 25, 1905, to serve three years for per- 
jury. Was transferred to the government 
hospital for insane at Washington, D. C, Oct. 
26, 1906, and discharged as cured December 
24, 1908. That he gave his age as fifty years." 

It will be noted that this "very bright" man 
was cured coincident with the expiration of his 
term of sentence. 

A characteristic of Corbett was generosity. 
At the time of President Lincoln's funeral, 
five hundred special cards of admission were 
issued and were in great demand as souvenirs. 
Corbett had one which he could not person- 
ally use, and asked me to name some one to 
use it. I suggested that he give it to Captain 
William S. McFarhn, Co. K, 18th Mass. V. I., 
which he did. I am told that he kept 
and prized it until his death at South Carver, 
Mass., January 17, 1914. 

Thus endeth my story of Boston Corbett. 

55 



Chapter IV. 

THE CAPTURE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Booth declared in his final message "I die 
for my country." 

There can be no question but that he be- 
lieved the cause of the Confederacy was the 
cause of his country. 

He was an undisguised secessionist. Evi- 
dence presented before the military commis- 
sion proved that Booth's first plan was the 
capture or kidnapping of President Lincoln, 
and his delivery to the Confederacy. 

He had good reasons for believing that to be 
the desire of the South. When it became 
evident he could not do that, his purpose was 
suddenly changed to assassination. 

Was his belief warranted? In December, 
1864, the Selma Alabama Despatch, a journal 
of wide circulation, printed an advertisement 
from a well known citizen, who asked for con- 
tributions to a fund of One Hundred Thousand 
Dollars, and offered to give the first thousand 
dollars, "to be paid to the man or men who 
before March 1st, 1865, should capture or kill 

56 




.1EKFERSOX IIAVIS. rAITri:EI> A 1 I K W 1 NS V I LLlv, <iA., MAY lit, 18(l5. 



Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and Will- 
iam H. Seward." 

An Alabama paper reported Jefferson Davis 
as approving the offer. His two speeches in 
April, 1865, in North Carolina, indicate that 
he did. In forming your judgment on this 
point, note the three names specified in the 
offer of reward — then read the evidence show- 
ing that Booth took charge of Lincoln ; as- 
signed Payne to kill Seward, and Atzeroth to 
kill Johnson, but who lost courage. 

On April 19th, Jefferson Davis was speaking 
at Charlotte, N. C, when a telegram was 
handed to him. He read it, then read it aloud 
to his audience : 

"Greensboro, April 19, 1865. To His 
Excellency President Davis. President Lincoln 
was assassinated in the theatre in Washington 
on the night of the 11th inst. Seward's house 
was entered on the same night and he was 
repeatedly stabbed and is probably mortally 
wounded. 

John C. Breckenridge." 

Davis then to his audience said, "If it were 
to be done it were better it were well done." 

The next day he made another speech, in 
which he said: "If the same had been done 
to Andy Johnson, the beast, and to Secretary 
Stanton, the job would have been complete." 

59 



In these facts we see what affected Booth's 
mind. 

In May, 1865, Davis with several of his 
cabinet, about four thousand troops, and sup- 
posed to have all the official records and about 
six million dollars in specie, was fleeing through 
the South. The United States sent out several 
detachments of cavalry under the Department 
Commanders, to find and follow his trail, and 
to prevent his reaching a seaport or the 
Mississippi River. Many false reports were 
made about his movements, which had to be 
followed out, with the result of scattering our 
raiders. 

As fast as his troops received news of Lee's 
surrender, they mostly surrendered or deserted. 

May 5th, some reliable information came to 
officers at Augusta, Ga., which was transmitted 
to General James H. Wilson at Macon, Ga., 
commanding the "Alabama and Georgia raid." 
When Davis reached Washington, Ga., May 
4th, he had but 150 armed men, and had dis- 
posed of most of the specie. When he left 
there May 5th, he had but six men armed. 

General Wilson in a telegram to Secretary 
Stanton, furnished May 13th, and in another 
May 14th, a basis for the ridiculous stories and 
caricatures of Davis flight, published in all the 
northern papers — which the facts officially re- 
ported to him did not justify. Secretary Stan- 

60 



ton believed them until the final report of Col. 
Pritchard. 

Time and truth, and a fair interpretation of 
all the official information, now corroborated 
by unofficial witnesses, show that Jefferson 
Davis was not clothed in his wife's dress or any other 
attire of women. 

All of the despatches and official reports 
concerning the capture have been printed in 
the "United States Official Record of the 
Union and Confederate Armies." 

The officer in command of the capturing 
Cavalry was Lieut. Col. Benjamin D. Pritchard, 
4th Michigan Cavalry, who had with him about 
130 men. 

He was the only one authorized to make re- 
port to General Wilson. At the Davis tent, 
when he surrendered, was Colonel Pritchard, 
Lieutenant Purrington, Corporals Crittenton 
and Munger, Privates Bee, Bullard and Ed- 
wards. All the remainder of the men were 
around the camp with orders to allow no one 
to leave their tents, sentinels being placed at each 
tent and wagon. 

Colonel Pritchard's despatches and final re- 
port are models of good taste. Two despatches 
of General Wilson, May 13th and 14th, to the 
Secretary of War, are spectacular and evidently 
inspired by false information. A reward had 
been ^offered for the capture of Davis, but 

61 



knowledge of it had not then been communi- 
cated to Colonel Pritchard. Colonel Pritchard 
sent a despatch by courier, seventy-five miles, 
to General Wilson, as soon as he knew whom 
he had captured. General Wilson wired it at 
once to Secretary Stanton, as follows: — 

"Macon, Ga., May 12th, 1865. 

Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War. 

I have the honor to report that at daylight of 
the 10th inst.. Colonel Pritchard commanding 
the 4th Michigan Cavalry captured Jefferson 
Davis and family, Reagan, P. M. General; 
Colonel Harriman, Private Secretary; Colonel 
Johnston, Aide de Camp; Colonel Morris, 
Colonel Lubbeck, Lieutenant Hathaway and 
others. Colonel Pritchard surprised their camp 
at Irwinsville in Wilson County, 75 miles south- 
east of this place. The prisoners will be here 
tomorrow night and will be forwarded under 
guard without delay. I will send particulars 
at once. 

Jas. H. Wilson, Bvt-Maj. General." 

Colonel Pritchard's only full report of the 
details was made to Secretary Stanton at Wash- 
ington, May 25, 1865, pursuant to a special 
order, and being made at his leisure, and to 
the highest authority, must be presumed to be 
as correct as he could make it. 

62 



In the meantime General Wilson interview- 
ed others and May 13th, 1865, sent a despatch to 
Secretary Stanton in which he says — 

''''The captors report that he (Davis) hastily put 
on one of Mrs. Davis' dresses and started for 
the woods, closely pursued by our men, who 
at first thought him a woman, but seeing his 
boots, while running suspected his sex at once. 
The race was a short one and the rebel Presi- 
dent was soon brought to bay. He brandished 
a bowie knife of elegant pattern, and showed 
signs of battle, but yielded promptly to the 
persuasion of Colt's revolvers, without com- 
pelling our men to fire." 

That sounds like a story writing correspon- 
dent of a New York paper. May 14th, General 
Wilson sent his third despatch to the Secretary. 
In it he said — "The device adopted by Davis 
was even more ignoble than I reported at first." 

At no time does he tell what it was. The 
northern papers said it was a "crinoline." 

January 17, 1867, from his Davenport, Iowa, 
home. General Wilson makes a supplemental 
report which he asked to have made part of the 
record. 

He says "it is made from the original infor- 
mation in my possession" and adds, "No re- 
sistance was offered because the enemy had 
posted no sentries and were therefore taken 
completely by surprise. A man called 

63 



Colonel Pritchard's attention to three persons 
in female attire moving from a tent towards 
the woods. They were Miss Howell, Mrs. Davis 
and Jeflferson Davis." 

If this were true, it would prove that Colonel 
Pritchard's sentries at the Davis tent were not 
obeying orders. 

In Colonel Pritchard's despatch to General 
Wilson he uses the term, "and family." 

May 15, Captain J. C. Hathaway, Company 
D, 4th Michigan Cavalry, who assisted in the 
Pritchard raid, made a report at Macon, Ga., 
of his part, in very definite terms. He says 
"there were captured with Davis his four little 
children." Not a word about an escape, a 
bowie knife, or a woman's dress. 

Can anybody believe Mr. and Mrs. Davis 
would abandon those "four little children" 
and flee to the woods? 

When together, Bvt. Brig. General Minty 
was Colonel Pritchard's superior officer, and 
July 2, 1865, Colonel Pritchard made a report 
to him without any allusion to the alleged at- 
tempt at "escape," the "disguise," the "bowie 
knife" or "Colt's revolvers." 

Colonel Pritchard on May 15, 1865, started 
via Augusta and Savannah for Fortress Mun- 
roe. He was ordered to deliver his charges to 
Major General Halleckand Bvt. Maj. General 

64 



Miles and proceed to Washington and report 
to Secretary Stanton. 

We must let him tell his own story in detail, 
in order to get the facts, by which it will ap- 
pear that until his report was filed, the Wash- 
ington authorities believed General Wilson's 
reports of Davis attempting to escape in his 
wife's crinoline and of his showing fight. 

"We reached Irwinsville about one o'clock 
in the morning of May 10th. Where passing 
my command as Confederates and inquiring for 
our train, representing that we were a rear 
guard left to fight the Yankees back, I learned 
about a train which had encamped the night 
before, one and a half miles out on the Abbe- 
ville road. There we found a camp. I halted 
my Company and sent Lieutenant Purington 
and twenty-five dismounted men, to circuit the 
camp. That being done, I put my column in 
motion and approached within four or five 
rods of the camp before we were discovered. 
In about fifteen minutes we heard guns from 
the skirmish between our and the 1st Wisconsin 
Cavalry pickets. We made a dash and cap- 
tured the entire camp. 

The surprise was so complete and the move- 
ment so sudden in its execution that few of the 
enemy were enabled to make the slightest de- 
fense, or even arouse from their slumbers in 
time to grasp their weapons, which were lying 

65 



by their sides. I placed a chain of mounted 
men around Davis' camp, and sentries at each 
tent and wagon. 

Davis came out and said to me 'I suppose 
you consider it bravery to charge a train of de- 
fenceless v^omen and children, but I consider 
it theft. It is vandalism.' 

We captured Jefferson Davis, J. H. Reagan, 
his Post Master General; Colonel Morris, 
Colonel Johnston, Colonel Lubbeck, Captain 
Maurin, Captain Moody, Lieutenant Harriman, 
Private Secretary; Lieutenant Hathaway, J. D. 
Howell, midshipman in the rebel navy; Miss 
Maggie Howell, sister of Mrs. Davis; two 
waiting maids, one white, one colored, and 
several servants ; five wagons, three ambu- 
lances, fifteen horses, about twenty-five or 
thirty mules. The wagons were mostly loaded 
with Commissory stores and private baggage. 
After caring for our wounded in the skirmish 
etc., I started for Macon and reached there 
the 13th. I was met at the outskirts of the 
city and ordered to select three officers and 
twenty men of my command to act as a guard, 
and depart at once for Washington, via Au- 
gusta and Savannah. Under orders of General 
Wilson I turned over all Privates captured, 
excepting two, — I received Clement C. Clay 
and wife. I reached Augusta the 14th and 
there received Alexander H. Stephens and 

66 



Major General Wheeler and staff. I arrived 
at Savannah May 16th, having marched two 
hundred miles in six days. 

At Savannah we embarked on the Steamer 
Clyde for Fortress Munroe and arrived the 19th. 
We remained on board until the 22nd. Then 
I turned over all to General Halleck, except 
Davis and Clay and families. Later I delivered 
them to Bvt. -Major General Miles." (Up to 
now he has made no mention of an attempt to 
escape, ofabowieknifeoradisguise.) He adds, — 

"I received through General Miles an order 
from Assistant Secretary of War, Charles A. 
Dana, dated May 23rd, 'to be sure to bring 
with him the woman's dress in which Davis 
was captured.' I went to the Steamer Clyde 
and received from Mrs. Davis a lady's water- 
proof cloak or robe and which Mrs. Davis said 
was worn by Mr. Davis as a disguise at the 
time of the capture and which was identified 
by men who saw it on him at the time. 

On the following morning the balance of the 
disguise, a shawl, was found and admitted by 
Mrs. Davis to be the one worn by Mr. Davis." 

Thus Colonel Pritchard dispels the dress and 
more "ignoble" features of General Wilson's 
unnamed "captors" information. 

In September 1865, Captain G. W. Lawton, 
4th Michigan Cavalry, furnished an article to a 
New York paper in which he said "the dis- 

67 



guise was a waterproof and a shawl." Lieu- 
tenant Dickenson and Corporal Munger said 
"Mr. Davis wore a waterproof and shawl." 

All of these reports and statements, except- 
ing General Wilson's, were made after the 
caricatures had been published and "known 
of all men." 

I hereby supplement the testimony by two 
witnesses who had reason to know the facts. 

One of the Privates at the Davis tent with 
Colonel Pritchard, came to me with Boston 
Corbett. He had read the stories and seen the 
pictures. Because General Wilson had made 
the statements he had, to the Secretary, this 
Private declined to permit the use of his name, 
but asserted with the most positive declaration, 
that stories of the attempt to escape were un- 
true and the first he heard of such claims was 
when at the Christian Commission rooms in 
Washington he was shown them. He said 
Mr. Davis came out of his tent, had some 
"sharp words" with the Colonel and returned 
to prepare for the journey, and that the senti- 
nels of which he was one, did not lose sight of 
Mr. Davis a moment while in the camp. 

With Mr. Davis was captured James H. 
Jones, colored. At Montgomery in February, 
1861, Davis was elected Confederate President, 
and soon after, Jones was assigned to him as 

68 



his personal servant, and was with him until 
Mr. Davis was imprisoned. 

During Mr. Cleveland's administration, 
Jones was appointed a messenger at the United 
States Senate Stationery Office, under the di- 
rection of Charles N. Richards, formerly of 
Quincy, Mass., and remained there until 1912. 

He was a large man with a decidedly mili- 
tary air, light complexion, very intelligent, po- 
lite and modest. 

I had seen him several years without know- 
ing his history. In March, 1907, my friend 
Richards told me about his history, said he 
was most faithful and truthful and introduced 
us. I drew from him the story of the capture. 
He denied that there was any dressing for, or 
attempt to escape, said it was not possible, as 
the sentries were with them all the time until 
they broke camp. He was positive that Mr. 
Davis did not have a bowie knife. Said "all 
there was to the 'dress yarn' arose from the 
fact that it was early in a damp morning, and 
Mr. Davis put on a shawl, which he custom- 
arily wore, and started to go out to meet the 
soldiers. Mrs. Davis, very much agitated 
said, 'Pa, don't go, those Yankees will shoot 
you.' He replied, 'they will treat me as a pris- 
oner of war, you need not fear,' reached and 
took up a waterproof, nearly the same color 
as his and threw it about his neck and shoulders. 

69 



He then stepped outside and had some words 
with the officer. I saw that he had the wrong 
waterproof , and I immediately exchanged them. 
It was early, before daylight. We were 
utterly surprised. Soon we were told we were 
prisoners. A Union officer ordered Mr. 
Davis to prepare for leaving immediately." 

I asked Brown, "What about the attempt to 
escape, leaving the children?" He answered, 
"You couldn't have hired him to do it, if you 
had given him the Confederacy." He added, 
"We were treated civilly as they could on the 
journey North." 

He wrote his card for me as follows — "Wash- 
ington, March 25, 1907, Mr. Johnson, Sir — I 
was born at Raleigh, N. C. in 1833, March 27th, 
I am respectfully yours, James H. Jones, 
U. S. S. S. O." 

He produced a buck horn handled cane, 
with a silver band, upon which was engraved, 
"Presented to James H. Jones in loving re- 
membrance for faithful service. Mrs. Jeffer- 
son Davis." It was understood the horn was 
from a buck, shot by Mr. Davis. 

Senator Williams secured the passage of 
an act by which Jones is in the south enjoying 
a life vacation and drawing his salary regularly. 

I believe this story to be fully substantiated 
by the official records and competent evidence, 

70 



and that justice demands that the hasty and un- 
warranted stories as to Davis' capture, told in 
1865, should be admitted to be erroneous, and 
that due credit should be given to Sergeant 
Corbett. 

I submit this plain review and the facts, be- 
cause of loving respect for our war President, 
friendship for the patriot Sergeant, and in de- 
ference to historical truth. 

Byron Berkeley Johnson 

Waltham, Mass., June, 1914 



71 











o K - .0 



/ -^ 




.^ ..... -^^ 






,<^^ ,0«« 



-^^0^ 













A 








^^-'^^ 




■^ 



c 




'bV 










vv 







> 




v^. 



<r. 



«• ' » ^ "^ .<i.^ rOXO ^ *'| 








4 o 







ft- " " *" * ■<«*> 






^^ ''^. 



^0 •-< 









.-^' 









■ '^t^ty*/- 















^' ^Il^i.k^/'^^. .-iP 






: \..^ :'M^r. *^..^^ 






C, xT 



'bV" 



-^^0^ 






■>. 









N >> 



» f2 S» 









V-S' 



























>. 






v'i^' c""" ^ '^^. 






.^o. 



"^ivi*^. 












■^, -'^'' 









.^^ 



-^^0^ 



>p^4^. 



